Informes

Activity report October 2006 - December 2007

Summary of key activities

Few days after the official start of the project on October 16th, 2006, the Scientific Committee (PIs of the 10 participant Groups) meet and established the distribution of main activities into eight Subprogrammes or Workpackages, each with one scientific responsible and a working group composed by a representative of the different institutions involved. A scheme of main tasks, expected deliverables and annual distribution for each workpackage is available in the website http://www.ictja.csic.es/index.php/research/projects/153-topoiberia.

WP1 deals with compilation of existing geological and geophysical data, to establish corresponding databases. A specific high performance server system was selected for this purpose, which received additional funding support from the responsible institution of this WP (IGME). The system was delivered and tested end of 2007, being fully operational since March 2008. In parallel, different groups have been compiling their existing data and transferring them to state-of-the-art formats.

WP2, 3 and 4 deal with acquisition of new high quality geophysical datasets (Seismic, GPS and MT, respectively) from a new instrumental platform, IberArray. In 2007, most efforts of Topo-Iberia have been devoted to select, acquire and test the appropriate equipment, and to start the field deployments.

The new portable seismic array acquired is composed by 40 broad band stations, and is complemented by 12 stations of ICTJA-CSIC. During the year, this array has been deployed in the southern sector with a node spacing of 60 km. Since the end of 2007, 31 stations in the Betics area and 21 in North Africa are recording in continuous mode. Data recovering and maintenance tasks, distributed among the working group, are accomplished through periodic visits every 2-3 months. The raw data are converted to appropriate formats and stored in a single server at the ICTJA. All the station parameters, state of health, and event examples are reported in the website http://iberarray.ictja.csic.es/.

The new GPS array (28 instruments, 3 of them spare) has also been acquired in 2007, tested and distributed among the groups. The data quality and availability of existing GPS stations has also been checked, the 25 new sites (four of them in Morocco) were located and monumentation tasks initiated. Field deployment of the array has begun early 2008. Equipment for the 3rd IberArray component, the Magnetotelluric one, has also been fixed and acquired in 2007. It is composed of two types of instruments, 5 Broad Band and 10 Long-Period MT stations. One of the field transects proposed (crustal profile Alcudia) could already be acquired using existing equipment.

Acquisition of new geological data (WP5) has also been initiated in selected areas of Iberia and North Africa. Field measurements of paleotemperatures, paleoseismology, geomorphological indexes, sampling for thermochronology (fission tracks and cosmogenic isotopes), active tectonics, structural geology, etc. have been conducted at sites in External Betics, Internal Betic complexes, Rif, Anti-Atlas, Moroccan Meseta, Iberian, Pyrenean and Cantabrian chains and folerand basins.

The last three WP are focused in establishing structural models by integration of geophysical and geological data, numerical/analogue modelling of tectono-sedimentary processes and relief evolution, and inter-relation of surface and deep processes by integrating all observables and models. They have initiated contacts and activities, especially in the development of modelling techniques, but they will increase their strength in the project in the coming years.

Activity report January 2008 - December 2008

Summary of key activities

In the second year of project activities (2008 period) the Scientific Committee (PIs of the 10 participant Groups) meet twice, in January and in December respectively, in order to establish and review the main activities within the eight Subprogrammes or Workpackages defined in the project. It should be reminded that each WP has one scientific responsible and a working group (WG) composed by a representative of the different institutions involved. These working groups also meet during the year and interact regularly to accomplish the specific objectives. A scheme of the project and milestones is available in a dedicated website defined within WP1 http://www.igme.es/internet/TopoIberia/.

WP1 deals also with compilation of existing and newly acquired geological and geophysical data, to establish corresponding databases. A specific high performance server system has been dedicated to this purpose. The system was acquired end of 2007, and is fully operational since March 2008. In parallel, the WP has agreed and fixed the state-of¬the-art formats to be used for each data base. The different groups are compiling their existing data and transferring them to the server, to be integrated to the Oracle 10 G database ‘TopoIberia’.

WP2, 3 and 4 deal with new geophysical datasets (Seismic, GPS and MT) from the instrumental platform IberArray acquired during 2007 within the project. In 2008, most efforts of IberArray have been devoted to field deployments, maintenance of equipments, data storage and preliminary analyses. Seismic and GPS arrays are fully operational, providing data in continuous mode, and a number of MT profiles have been recorded.

The seismic array is composed of 40 broad band stations, complemented by 12 stations from ICTJA-CSIC and 4 from UCM. During 2008, this array (35 stations in the Betics area and 21 in North Africa) operated in continuous mode. Data recovering and maintenance tasks, distributed among the working group, are accomplished through periodic visits every 2-3 months. The raw data are converted to appropriate formats and stored in a single server at the ICTJA. All the station parameters, state of health and event examples are reported in the website http://iberarray.ictja.csic.es/. In this period, particular emphasis has been devoted to analysis of noise levels within the array, to evaluate the quality of sites.

The deployment of the GPS array has been accomplished in 2008. Up to 22 stations are operating in the Peninsula, and 4 instruments are placed in Morocco. Monumentation, maintenance and data recovery tasks were distributed between the WG. Some antennas need to be repaired in this period, and the two spare instruments could be used in the meantime. Magnetotelluric equipment has been acquired in two stages, last one completed at the beginning of 2008. It is composed of 5 Broad Band and 10 Long-Period MT stations. Up to 4 MT profiles, three of them in the Peninsula and one in the Moroccan Rif have already been recorded in this period.

Acquisition of new geological data (WP5) has continued in selected areas of Iberia and North Africa. Field measurements of active tectonics, structural geology, geomorphological indexes, paleotemperatures, paleoseismology and sampling for thermochronology (fission tracks and cosmogenic isotopes) have been conducted at sites in External Betics, Internal Betic complexes, Rif, Anti-Atlas, Moroccan Meseta, Iberian, Pyrenean and Cantabrian chains and folerand basins.

The last three WP focus in establishing structural models by integration of geophysical and geological data, numerical/analogue modelling of tectono-sedimentary processes and relief evolution, and inter-relation of surface and deep processes by integrating all observables and models. The activities in 2008 refer mainly to developments of analogue and numerical modelling techniques. A 3-day international symposium on the Topo-Europe programme has been organized by members of this team, a full day session of which has been devoted to Topo-Iberia, with a high attendance and success.

Activity report January 2010 - December 2010

Summary of key activities

During the 2010 period (fourth year of the project), main activities afforded within the eight Subprogrammes or Workpackages (WP) defined in ‘Topo-Iberia’ have been reviewed by the Scientific Committee in two meetings, held respectively, in July 2010 in Granada and January 2011 in Barcelona. The working groups of each WP interacted regularly and met whenever necessary to accomplish the specific objectives.

The website summarizing project information, http://www.igme.es/internet/TopoIberia/ is being maintained at IGME, within WP1. The WP1 also manages an Oracle 10 G database ‘TopoIberia’ compiling existing and newly acquired geological and geophysical data sets. A specific high performance server (‘SITOPO’) is implemented at IGME for this purpose.

The instrumental platform IberArray (Seismic, GPS and MT), created within this project, has kept running continuously during this period, acquiring high-quality geophysical data.

In the last months of 2010 the seismic portable array has started their third and last shift scheduled in the project, from the central sector towards North Iberia. The 19 stations deployed in Morocco where also partly shifted towards southwest, to monitor a wider area of the Gibraltar Arc system in an international collaborative effort with US and German scientists that deploy also portable seismic networks in Morocco within the Picasso initiative. The TopoIberia seismic data center running at ICTJA (http://iberarray.ictja.csic.es/) incorporates also the continuous recordings from all permanent stations in Iberia. Current results show important lateral variations in crustal structure in the Gibraltar Arc System, and marked variations on mantle anisotropy features in relation with major tectonic events on the different domains of the study area.

The WP3 has supervised during 2010 the maintenance of the GPS IberArray, the compilation of data from sites of the global reference system, the data transfer, storage and analysis within the 3 expert groups, ROA, UB and Jaen. A new version of the Gipsy software package is implemented, and comparative analyses of temporal series have been performed using Gipsy and Gamit codes. Preliminary results of displacement vectors have been presented and discussed in different international meetings.

In 2010 a N-S structural transect of about 1300 km length, across the whole Iberian Peninsula and the Rif-Atlas systems, from the Cantabrian Coast down to the Algerian-Sahara border, has been completed from several Magnetotelluric profiles (broad-band and long-period data sets). The last two segments have been acquired, one in a N-S profile across the Cantabrian range and Duero Basin and the other across the Central System. Results of MT profiles in Spanish Meseta and Betics-Rif system have been published this year.

Analyses of recent tectonic activity, relief formation, uplift and erosion rates or landscape evolution are being performed within WP5 in different sites of main ranges and foreland basins of Spain and North Morocco. In 2010, field experiments involving geomorphological indexes, thermo-chronology (fission tracks and cosmogenic isotopes), paleoseismology, paleogeography, active tectonics or structural geology provided new data sets, and results from on-going analyses are presented in several papers published in 2010.

Numerical and analogue modelling of deep and surface processes are investigated in WPs VI and VII. Developments in 2010 are particularly focussed in providing appropriate materials to integrative WP VIII, hence increasing interactions between the three WPs. The WP VIII is designed to compile all geophysical and geological observables and evolutionary models. Structural transects covering major Iberian domains have been defined to synthesize the achievements. Compilation tasks in 2010 have been developed mainly along the major N-S transect.